Ever since 1928, directors of all ages have adapted ‘Devdas’. The love affair continues, with two new versions in the pipeline. Sanjukta Sharma in Lounge:
The serpentine streets of Paharganj, teem and throb with people, bullock carts, honking horns, rattling motorcycles spewing black fumes and the collective hum of a million voices. This Delhi neighbourhood is a hub of European and Israeli budget travellers. But in director Anurag Kashyap’s next film Dev D, it is a microcosm of the world, a locus that propels the story and its characters.
From the panoramic view, his camera zooms into one corner of the frame, a run-down balcony where Chandramukhi, in between puffs of a cigarette, curiously looks out on to the streets. The interiors of the brothel where the college girl lives and works, her clothes and make-up are a riot of colours, mostly hues of pink. Kashyap’s Chandramukhi (the character decides to adopt that name while watching Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas) seems strikingly different from the Chandramukhi that Hindi film lovers have come to know from the many film versions of Devdas. Here, she comes across as sassy, even mean, yet deep and knowing. So, will she be the same self-sacrificing Chandramukhi we know?
[Photos: Chitrangada Singh (left) and Kalki.]
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